I didn't get a chance to watch the Barrie or Sudbury games, but here are my thoughts on the Soo game:

1. Gotta wonder about pulling Barrick, except for maybe the first period as a shake-up move, since none of the goals was his fault. The first one was a wonky deflection off a Sting player, and the second one was just a good goal. The net result is that your star goalie gets shelled, largely because of the selfish play of one of the D (more on that later), and his save percentage and GAA take a kick. IMHO, Barrick should have gone back in to begin the 2nd period. By that point, you are down 4-0, and you throw the kid back in since the shake-up move did not work. To keep Anderson in a game like that serves no purpose other than to wear him out and skew his stats.

2. Whatever Coach Beaulieu hopes to achieve with DeAngelo is failing. Number 77 was the direct cause of 5 of those goals against. He has ZERO concept of what a defenseman's job is, in particular, and what team defense is all about, generally. The minute the puck touches a Sarnia stick in the D-zone, he's gone on one of his predictable spinning, wandering, deking forays deep into the offensive zone. Of course, he usually does it at the end of what a proper shift should be, so he's totally gassed when he inevitably coughs up the puck and trudges back to his end with his tongue hanging out, only to see his out-manned mates get scored upon because he's so far out of position. Poor Chapman, who relieves Duininck in the current rotation, got nailed with at least 4 minuses because DeAngelo refused to come off when Duininck did. If I'm one of the vets on that team, I take him aside and carefully explain to him that his dental arragement is in jeopardy if he keeps being such a selfish jerk and costing his team. Clearly, the coach has no influence on him or doesn't care, both of which are disturbing.

Don't get me wrong--DeAngelo has a ton of potential up-side. He's scrappy, confident, a FANTASTIC skater and has a decent shot. Whoever is advising him is asleep at the switch if they let Jacques continue to let him play like a spoiled peewee superstar, which will kill his career development just as surely as anything. I have said it before on this board, and it bears repeating, that despite his glitzy package, NHL scouts have very little interest in him at this point as a high-end prospect based on his utter lack of hockey sense or coachability. No one needs or wants a 5'-10" 165 lb prima donna defenseman who is getting worse and not better as he gets older.

3. Say what you want about Cousins and his on and off-ice adventures, he is a heck of a hockey player. He's tireless, irritating, smart with the puck, irritating, has unbelievable vision, is irritating, and draws penalties like crazy because he's so irritating, plus he's just irritating. LIke him or not, there are a ton of NHL teams in addition to the Flyers that would love to have a guy like that on the roster. He will likely have a long career with 9 different NHL teams before it's all over...did I mention that he's irritating?

4. The Soo broadcast guys are just awful. Terrible...the play-by-play guy must be visually impaired or drunk, because the names he calls have no relation to who is actually on the ice at the time. And Montegue...what a poseur! If there is a more pompous "never-been-there-never-done-that" know-it-all in the entire broadcast/journalism world, I would like to see it.